


Strangers in the Night

by cassiopiea



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: ACOTAR - Freeform, F/M, Moriel - Freeform, acomaf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 00:55:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7131548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopiea/pseuds/cassiopiea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mor/Azriel. Their relationship from the beginning to the end of A Court of Mist and Fury. (ACOMAF spoilers)</p><p>Their paths collide, but never entwine because feelings are easier to ignore when they deny them. For three hundred years they've been avoiding fate, but fate has other plans for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangers in the Night

i. The girl with a beautiful heart  
He’s enraptured by her the first time he sees her, he thinks. She is so beautiful. Rhysand’s younger cousin. Mor.

Her smile is so bright and kind as she takes Cassian’s hand and shakes it. He’s never seen his Illyrian brother blush so brazenly in all the time he’s known him. He thinks Cassian is just as bewitched by her too. 

She then moves to him and he anxiously balls his scarred hands into fists, for he is ugly and unworthy of her elegant grace. Azriel. Her lips form his name and he can’t speak. She reaches out a hand to take his and before he can comprehend what’s happening, her fingers have latched on to his.

He is horrified and tries to take his hand back. For now this angel knows of the scars he has tried to keep hidden- the hauntings of his past. But she merely grips harder and places his hand between both of hers. He thinks he might cry at her kindness as she softy caresses his scarred hand as if to say ‘I understand.’ 

He thinks he loves her then. 

But time is short and fate is unkind. As he walks away with Rhysand, he can’t help but feel a sharp pang of jealousy as the beautiful girl turns and whispers into Cassian’s ear and they both smile and head toward an Illyrian cottage. 

ii. The boy with beautiful eyes.  
Death. They had said it would come easy, but fate is cruel. As she stares up at the trees and the beautiful night sky, she silently prays for the darkness to take her. 

The tears have long since dried and her body is numb. The cold has begun to seep into her body. But her thoughts were alive. 

She thinks about her parents and how they betrayed and tossed her aside. She thinks about her cousin who would mourn her. She thinks about the great Illyrian warrior, and what he would think of her then. Finally, she thinks about the boy with the shy smile she had met once upon a time who had seemed so shocked by her kindness.

She laughs then, but only a gurgling sound comes out. He has the most beautiful eyes.

Beautiful electric blue eyes. Such concern and devotion are shining through those eyes. She sees them now, blocking the night sky. They look so real, as if he were staring at her now. 

She smiles. If his eyes were the last thing she’d see before she died, then she would be happy. She lets her eyes close as she feels him whisper.

‘Mor, stay with me.’

iii. Burning.  
He’s been watching her all night. Cassian has been too. He watches as she flits about the room talking to everyone and dancing with strangers. He watches her eyes light up as she laughs with Amren and teases Rhys.

And now he was on the balcony of the House of Wind, trying to clear his mind of the beautiful high fae who captured his eye the whole night. Azriel sighs as he hears footsteps approaching him. He had known she would come looking for him. 

They are both silent as they look out at Velaris. But the lights of Velaris could never distract him from her. His gaze is drawn to Mor again. He stares at the way her eyes drink in the lights and the subtle rise and fall of her chest. He thinks he could search all the universe and never find a woman as kind nor as beautiful as she. Who could ever think to hurt something so pure?

He clenches his fist as he thinks about how close the bastard Autumn prince and her wretched parents came to snuffing out her light. He wishes he had known her sooner, so he could have protected her. As much as he loved his brother, some deep part of him was angry at Cassian for his part in her pain. Dangerous thoughts. 

She turns to look at him and he thinks she knows what he’s thinking. She merely looks at him contemplatively and takes his hand. He feels his fist unclenching to grasp her delicate hand and his anger dissipate.

Her hand feels electric against his skin, her touch burning. He looks at their entwined hands. The softness and smoothness of her hand doesn’t seem to fit against his scarred one. 

Something so beautiful shouldn’t touch something so ugly. 

He has to use all his willpower to pull his hand away from hers. As soon as his hand is free, he immediately feels the loss. He turns away before he can see her disappointment.

For all his longing, he knows he is unworthy of her. Because some deep, primal part of himself whispers that if Mor had invited him to her bed that fateful day, he would have said yes and damned the consequences. 

 

iv. Drowning.  
His passion matches her own, each caress bringing her higher. His fingers trail down to her most intimate parts and stroke her inner fire, until she’s left gasping, clinging to him for release. She looks up and all she can see is his bright blue eyes, glazed with want and passion, and dare she think it- love. He’s smiling down at her and her heart is bursting with joy. He’s whispering her name and then she’s falling.

Her eyes open. She clutches at her beating heart, thrumming wildly against her chest. Her thighs are wet with desire, her legs are shaking, and her lungs can’t seem to grasp enough air. Her body aches for release and her heart aches- for him.

She dreams the same dream for the next seven nights. She avoids his gaze during the day, afraid to look into his ice blue eyes in fear that he would find out. Because his eyes are so beautiful. Because one look into their icy depths and she’d be lost. Because the day he rescued her, he lit a fire in her heart and she can’t seem to get him out. 

So she laughs with Cassian and pretends he isn’t there because it’s easier to deny her feelings that way.

v. The game.  
Dodging feelings becomes easy for them. It’s a game of cat and mouse. 

She invites him to Rita’s, then she invites Cassian. She spends the night dancing and he watches her, entranced by her every move. When she takes a break, he brings her a drink brushing her fingers as he does so. She dances with someone else, but her eyes always are drawn back to his. 

At the end of the night is when all pretenses fade. He and Cassian walk her back to her villa and she always leaves them both with a smile and a wave. But when Cassian isn’t looking, she slips a sheet of paper in Azriel’s waiting hand.

Midnight.

He tells himself he shouldn’t go, but he finds himself at her door anyway. She opens the door and he loses his breath. And then she’s in his arms. His traitorous heart beats faster under her touch. She beckons him outside and they walk along Velaris together talking about anything and everything. But this is only how far they take it. 

Because the next day, she’s in someone else’s arms and pretending once more that there is nothing between them.

He begs his heart to fall in love with someone else- anyone else. 

It kills him to see her with Cassian or with another fae. But he understands that she is like lightning, elegant and elusive. Like a blazing star, she makes people fall in love with the moment, but leaves before they get too close.

It doesn’t stop him from loving her.

vi. The end.  
Her lungs constrict. Her whole body freezes. Her lips are open in a silent cry. Her eyes begin to fill with tears. Her heart begins to break.

She’s too late. The arrow pierces Azriel’s heart. 

And then she’s catching him in her arms. And praying to whatever god that existed to not take him away from her. And making broken promises that she’d do better and that she’d tell him the truth.

Because she would do better. 

And she would tell him that she loves him.

Because she does. And she thinks she’s been in love with him since the moment they locked eyes, but she was afraid. But no fear was greater than the fear she felt now at the thought of never seeing him smile at her again or seeing his blue eyes again sparkle as they held hers.

She caresses his face- so deathly pale. Her eyes lock with his and she wishes she had more time. She wishes she had said it in the last 300 years that she’s known him. 

I’m so sorry.


End file.
